Swinging and sliding doors for motor vehicles are known that have a door panel and at least one pivoting arm secured to the wall of the vehicle, with a carriage articulated to the end of the arm, the arm sliding back and forth on a carrier connected to the door panel. Doors of this type are opened and closed manually and incorporate guide mechanisms that ensure that the panel will start to open by pivoting out of the doorway, after which it can be slid to a fully open position.
Combining such doors with a drive mechanism secured to the vehicle body is also known. Such drive mechanisms generally employ a wheel to drive a flexible linear-transmission element, for example a steel cable, guided by rollers and attached to the door panel to generate the sliding motion. The swinging motion, however, is then induced by appropriate guide structures or generated by a second wheel connected to the arm. The two different motions are therefore obtained with different motors in the known doors. The use of two motors may make manufacturing such a device complicated and expensive. This traditional arrangement also requires a great deal of space on the vehicle body therefore limiting potential usage of this design on various vehicles.